Celebrate our Rededication
Thank you for all you have each given to make Temple Beth El such a successful, vibrant and warm congregation. The Rededication Weekend is a celebration of the end of our long journey through the rigors of construction and back to our newly renovated Temple home. There are many opportunities to celebrate our return to Temple Beth El in the inclusive spirit of the weekend…and of Temple Beth El as a whole.
Our intent was to create a weekend that embraces the entire community, speaks to different parts of our congregation, offers multiple opportunities for everyone to attend at least one major celebration that is absolutely free…and provides one major fundraising opportunity for the Temple. We hope everyone will join us Friday night as we celebrate on Shabbat with worship, song and a spectacular Oneg Shabbat. This is our chance to be together as one community and one congregation, to rejoice with the greater community as well. It is our central celebration.
While we would never want any Beth El member to feel excluded, we must have a fundraiser to remain good stewards of our Temple and we hope as many of you as possible will come. The party will be spectacular and the need for our Temple is great. So, here is the roundup of the weekend activities, and the thought behind each:
1. Friday is the primary celebration. It is Shabbat with a “Grand Oneg Shabbat” as a major party! It is open to all. It is free. Our service will include former clergy, current members, benefactors, clergy from our partner Christian and Islamic congregations in Charlotte and VIP’s from the community. This Shabbat evening will be the centerpiece of our Dedication Weekend.
2. Saturday morning will be the “L’dor V’dor Shabbat Morning Service – An Intergenerational Community Celebration” led by LIBERTY, our Senior Youth Group. That will also be an open and inclusive celebration of the community we are. Everyone is invited.
3. Sunday morning is a great celebration for families and our Religious School, although all are invited to come and watch the fun. The families will have a “scavenger hunt” to find the features of our new building and get to know our new congregational home in a celebratory way. This is also absolutely free and event you should really attend.
This leaves Saturday night. In order to meet this year’s budget, last year’s Board set an aggressive fundraising goal. Since we do not have a One For All Ball this year, Saturday night’s event will be our primary Temple fundraiser. In strategically planning this event, we determined that the Temple Rededication Weekend was the best time for drawing congregants and members of the broader community to a fundraiser.
The renovation project is coming in on-time (OK, a couple of weeks later than we wish) and on-budget. To be on-budget, we have “value engineered” and very responsibly cut some “wish we had’s”. We owe Jonathan Howard, Ben Benson, Sara and the entire Building Committee a huge debt of gratitude. They have been incredibly responsible and careful stewards to allow us to finish the project inside of our budget. However, we are still going to be missing some things you might expect to see…again, making an aggressive fundraiser all the more necessary. We will add those “wish we had’s” as we can.
There are many events we plan, such as the Purim Dance shortly and the April event to celebrate Susan Jacobs’ 10th Anniversary (with guest musician, Debbie Friedman) that are fun and open to all with very low ticket prices. Those events are NOT intended to raise money…they are intended to raise spirit.
Our Friday night, Saturday morning and Sunday morning events are also to raise spirit and community. We have a different mission with the Saturday event. It is our “One For All Ball” opportunity this year.
We know that the Dedication Weekend will be a positive and memorable event for all and appreciate all you’d done to make it happen. If you have any further concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact either Rabbi Schindler or me.
Many thanks to the leadership of this congregation over the last 3 years that have made this all possible. All of us as members are grateful for all you have done to make this become a reality.